Equal Care Day

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CareCamp on the occasion of the Equal Care Day in Bonn (2020)

The Equal Care Day is a day of action , which draws attention to the lack of appreciation and unfair distribution of care work. The definition of February 29 , which is a leap day only every 4 years and is skipped in the years in between, indicates that care work is largely "invisible work" that is often not noticed and not paid for. The day also symbolizes the ratio of 4: 1 in the distribution of care work and reminds us that it would take men around four years to do as much private, professional and voluntary care work as women in one year. The aim of the initiative is to distribute the tasks of care and nursing more evenly to both genders, to generally upgrade them and to improve their labor law and socio-political framework.

history

The Equal Care Day was launched in 2016 by Almut Schnerring and Sascha Verlan . It was based on the Equal Pay Day , which reminds us that women earn significantly less on average than men. The Equal Care Day has been organized by klische * esc eV since 2018 and was funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education for one year in 2019 . In 2020, events took place nationwide in over 20 cities under the umbrella of Equal Care Day. The focus was on a two-day conference in Bonn, at which the care situation in Germany was discussed in order to develop demands and possible solutions for a manifesto. The basis was provided by eight workshops depicting care work from the cradle to the grave : 1. Birth and obstetrics, 2. Family work and child-rearing, 3. Mental load and self care, 4. Care and nursing, 5. Basic income and care Accounts, 6. Caring companies, 7. Care and the environment, 8. Elderly care and terminal care.

Equal Care Manifesto

The Equal Care Manifesto was published on May 20, 2020 and calls for the recognition of care work as a basic social foundation. With the participation of professional associations, scientists and aid organizations, 18 demands were made, for which, in addition to better pay in care professions and a fair distribution of unpaid care work between the sexes, the "value creation through unpaid care work in the national accounts and a takeover of care work Responsibility by private companies ”counts.

The Equal Care Day initiative is a member of the Care Revolution network . It is supported by representatives of political parties ( Doris Achelwilm , Katja Dörner , Elke Ferner , Alexandra Geese , Anja Hagenauer , Caren Marks , Claudia Moll , Katja Kipping , Maria Noichl , Lisa Paus , Elfi Scho-Antwerpes , Ulla Schmidt , Ashok- Alexander Sridharan ), associations ( DBB Beamtenbund and Tarifunion , German Midwives Association , DGB , Catholic Women's Community of Germany , United Service Union ), organizations ( Aktion Mensch , BPW Germany , Oxfam , UN Woman Germany ) as well as people from literature and journalism ( Renate Alf , Sibylle Berg , Patricia Cammarata , Ulrike Draesner , Christine Finke , Karin Jurczyk , Mareice Kaiser , Martin Rücker , Barbara Sichtermann , Margarete Stokowski ), science ( Gisela Bock , Karin Jurczyk, Antje Schrupp , Gabriele Winker ), economics ( Henrike von Platen ), politics ( Elke Büdenbender , Anke Domscheit-Berg , Herr und Speer , Raul Krauthausen , Kathrin Mahler Walther , Stevie Schmiedel ), music and performing arts ( Judith Holofernes , Dominique Macri , Lars Ruppel , Sookee ).

Equal Care Day and Equal Pay Day

While the focus of the Equal Pay Day is on equal pay for paid employment, the Equal Care Day also looks at unpaid care work that is carried out in the family and as volunteer work. He draws attention to the fact that the conditions of paid and unpaid services are mutually dependent, interdependent and sometimes also compete with one another: “Many politicians and economists claim that work in the family is priceless - in a double sense [. ..]. Above all, there is talk of the care provided 'out of love' for the family or of volunteering for the 'salvation of humanity' and, usually a little more quietly, also of the fact that the billions of unpaid working hours, if you actually want to pay them, are unaffordable. The gender-specific pay gap is partly due to the fact that this creates competition between unpaid and paid work, as a result of which professional care work is underestimated. Disregard for women and their work performance leads to pay discrimination, the gender pay gap [...] ”, says Hannelore Buls . In addition to the gender and the resulting industry-specific wage differences, Equal Care Day also draws attention to the unpaid work, the amount of which is 4.5 hours per day, that women in Germany do on average without being paid for it (as of 2019). A study of social inequality published by Oxfam 2020 found that women around the world work 12 billion hours without getting paid.

Gender Care Gap

The Gender Care Gap is an indicator of gender equality . It quantifies the gender-specific difference in the amount of time that is spent on unpaid care work. The equality report published by the Federal Government in 2019 shows that women are more involved in care than men. According to him, the gender care gap is 52.4 percent and was calculated on the basis of a time use survey by the Federal Statistical Office from 2012 and 2013. The gender care gap varies depending on age and life situation. It reached its highest value with 110.6 percent in the group of 34-year-olds and decreased with increasing age. In families with children, the care gap was particularly high at 83.3 percent, but women living alone also spent more time on care activities than men living alone. The global emergency and development organization Oxfam pointed out that girls and women around the world are primarily responsible for unpaid care work and that this also leads to girls having less access to education, which has a negative impact on their professional development and social inequality aggravated.

Global Care Chain

The hierarchical imbalance between the sexes in the distribution of care, emotional, household and care tasks also includes characteristics of ethnic affiliation and social status and is reflected in labor migration in the care sector. In sociology, this global redistribution of paid and unpaid care tasks within certain population groups is referred to as the global care chain . In a typical transnational care arrangement , a wealthy family from an industrialized country hires a migrant from an economically poorer country, whose own care work at home is taken over by poorer, older or rural women.

Mental load

Mental load describes the invisible area of ​​care work, which includes all the management processes that lie behind the visible tasks. “There are the many recurring simple and complicated to-dos and questions of everyday life: Which foods have to be bought and when? Which bills have to be paid? Write to the landlord! Buy new toothpaste! "

reception

Media such as Emma, Taz, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit reported on the introduction of the day of action. In the following years, the deliberate omission of Equal Care Day between leap years was used as a hook for events, television reports, social media campaigns and political calls. Tweets and blog posts on the topic have been posted under the hashtag #equalcareday since 2016 . In 2018, the organizers called for a Germany-wide letter campaign. In the form of personal letters to a child of the next generation or the next but one, wishes and thoughts on the situation of the care work should be formulated. In the run-up to Equal Care Day 2020, a call was launched under the hashtag #unverSichtbar to propose and portray people who care for a “gallery of invisible work”.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Apitzsch , Marianne Schmidbaur: Care, Migration and Gender Equality . In: Federal Center for Political Education (Ed.): Women in Europe (=  From Politics and Contemporary History (APuZ) ). No. 37-38 , September 7, 2011 ( bpb.de [accessed November 17, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Press release No. 099 of the Federal Statistical Office of March 15, 2018: The difference in earnings between women and men in Germany in 2017 was 21%
  3. ↑ Event overview . In: Website the Equal Care Day. Retrieved February 29, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Equal Care Day Workshops. In: Website the Equal Care Day. Retrieved February 29, 2020 .
  5. ↑ The Equal Care Manifesto. In: Equal Care Day website. Retrieved May 20, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Lisa Ecke: Care work is not valued. new germany, May 20, 2020, accessed on May 20, 2020 .
  7. ↑ supporters. In: Website the Equal Care Day. Retrieved November 16, 2019 .
  8. ^ Equal Care Day Gala. In: Gala for Equal Care Day in Bonn. Retrieved March 1, 2020 .
  9. ↑ German Women's Council and Federal Men ’s Forum : Press release on Equal Pay Day 2016. Quote from Hannelore Buls . March 16, 2016, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Women work 4.5 hours a day without pay. In: Zeit Online. May 6, 2019, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Oxfam Germany eV (Ed.): In the shadow of profits. How the systematic devaluation of housework, care and welfare creates and deepens inequality . Inequality Report Oxfam 2020 - Factsheet (German). ( oxfam.de [PDF; accessed on January 31, 2020]).
  12. ^ Second equality report by the Federal Government. Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth, January 24, 2019, accessed on November 16, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Women's working hours: one third gainful employment, two thirds unpaid work. Press release No. 179 Federal Statistical Office, May 18, 2015, accessed on November 16, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Gender Care Gap - an indicator for equality. Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth, August 27, 2019, accessed on November 16, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Mara Brückner: 12 billion hours of unpaid care work. Accessed January 31, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Helma Lutz, Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck: The care chain concept on the test bench. Heinrich Böll Foundation, March 1, 2014, accessed on January 31, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Lisa Großmann: “Is there still toilet paper?” In: Frankfurter Rundschau. January 14, 2019, accessed April 3, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Good idea: The Equal Care Day , Emma February 17, 2016
  19. ↑ Four years of rework, gentlemen! by Simone Schmollack, taz February 28, 2016
  20. ^ A leap day for the care work by Sarah Schmidt, Süddeutsche, February 29, 2016
  21. ↑ A day for equality in the household by Tina Groll , Zeit online February 1, 2016
  22. ↑ You call it love, we call it unpaid labor . Evening event for Equal Care Day in the Museum of Modern Art, February 28, 2017, Frankfurt a. M.
  23. ↑ Equal Care Day - Letters to the Next Generation , WDR, frautv, March 1, 2018 (in the media library until 1.3.19)
  24. ↑ Presentation of the Equal Care Day action day in the program scobel: Business with housework , 3sat, April 26, 2018. Einspiel: In the end there is a big gap and our life also consists of care
  25. ↑ Street interview: Girls'Day asks about: Care work. In: Youtube. Girls'Day, accessed March 1, 2018 (2018-09-29).
  26. ↑ Elke Ferner: ARSP Federal Chairwoman Elke Ferner calls for more recognition for care work. March 1, 2017, accessed September 29, 2018 .
  27. ↑ Birgit Strahlendorff: Every day should be an Equal Care Day. In: vdl-hessen.info. dbb federal women's representation, February 28, 2018, accessed on September 29, 2018 .
  28. ↑ Kordula Schulz-Asche, spokeswoman for care policy: Equal Care Day: finally making care work more attractive. Bundestag parliamentary group Bündnis 90 - Die Grünen, March 1, 2018, accessed on September 29, 2018 .
  29. ↑ Hashtag #equalcareday on Twitter. Retrieved September 22, 2018 .
  30. ^ Letters on Equal Care Day 2018. February 28, 2018, accessed on October 16, 2018 .
  31. ^ Margit Warken-Dieke: Equal Care Day in Bonn. A day of action for people who care. In: General-Anzeiger Bonn. November 26, 2019, accessed February 1, 2020 .
  32. ↑ The Gallery of Invisible Work. Portrait series as part of Equal Care Day. In: Equal Care Day website. Accessed February 1, 2020 .